This invention relates to a bidet apparatus that can be associated with (or incorporated in) an otherwise conventional toilet.
Prior to my invention others have suggested that toilets can be modified to incorporate a bidet function, i.e., to provide a water spray for cleansing the posterior parts of a person's body using the toilet bowl as receiver for the cleansing liquid (water).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,058 to Hurko shows a toilet having a water spray head 55 mounted in a rear surface of the toilet bowl rim 3 to discharge a jet of water forwardly and slightly upwardly to perform a cleansing operation on a person seated on the toilet. Spray head 55 receives its supply of water from an auxiliary chamber 33 formed integrally with a toilet tank 32. A manually-operated valve 39 controls the flow of water from chamber 33 to spray head 55.
The apparatus of Hurko U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,058 has some disadvantages. For example, the water discharged from spray head 55 is cold water; a spray of warm water would be less shocking and otherwise more beneficial to the user. Also, the spray head 55 of the patented device is in a fixed location in the toilet bowl such that the spray water has a fixed trajectory; the water contacts only one specific area of the person's body, rather than multiple distinct areas on the body. The water spray has a specific impingement angle against the body, such that it may not be effective on persons with different anatomical configurations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,058 to Nourbakhsh shows a bidet attachment for a toilet, wherein a portable spray head 80 is supplied with water through a flexible conduit 78 that is connected to an auxiliary water chamber 60. A person seated on the toilet can manipulate the portable spray head to perform a cleansing operation. Water chamber 60 is supplied with separate streams of hot and cold water through lines 62 and 66; separate control valves are associated with the water lines to adjust the respective flows, to thereby control the temperature of the water discharged from chamber 60 into flexible conduit 78.
The Nourbakhsh Patent would require special plumbing connections to provide the separate streams of hot and cold water (lines 62 and 66). Additionally the performance of the apparatus might not be entirely satisfactory, due to the fact that for the first few minutes' operation the hot water line might be relatively cold (until the line had cleared itself of relatively cold water). During the first few minutes' operation the water spray on the person's body might be relatively cold; adjustment of the mixing valves to raise the water temperature could cause the person to be later scalded when the hot water line was cleared of relatively cold water.
The device of the Nourbakhsh Patent includes a specially built water tank. It cannot be a conventional tank with add-on componentry (i.e., a retrofit type installation).